Bowes, Fanny Brimley, 1831-1903

Fanny Brimley grew up in Cambridge, England, the youngest daughter in a merchant family. Her father, Augustine Gutteridge Brimley, was an alderman and at one point mayor of the university town. Her half-brother, the son of her widowed father’s first wife (who was, coincidentally, her mother’s older sister) was essayist George Brimley, who was appointed librarian of Trinity College at the university in 1845. In 1868 Fanny married Robert Bowes who had been in the bookselling and publishing business since the age of eleven with his uncles Daniel and Alexander Macmillan; their now-global business was then just getting started. The family had three children and included Robert’s widowed mother when she returned from Illinois, where she and her husband had emigrated. Robert played a role in Cambridge civic life, serving as a town councillor for nine years. In 1899, their son, George Edmund Brimley Bowes, partnered with his father after the death of Uncle Alexander in 1896; in 1907, their company became Bowes & Bowes. After Fanny’s death, both Robert and George served as presidents of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association in 1914 and 1923 respectively. In 1918 Robert received an honorary MA degree from Cambridge.